Sri Lanka Squash was inaugurated in 1981, has marked the completion of four decades of active involvement in promoting & regulating the Game of Squash in Sri Lanka.

Until 1980, Squash was played as a ‘Social Game’ by a few members of the Armed Forces, who were introduced to the game during their training stints in the United Kingdom, whether they belonged to the Army, Navy or the Air Force and Members of the Queen’s Club and the Plantation Community with their Courts in Radalle , Dimbulla etc.

During the latter part of 1980, Wing Commander [Retired] Noel Fernando who was the General Manager of ‘Thomas Cook’ in Colombo, after a game of Squash at the Gymkhana Club Courts at Maitland Crescent, with ‘Mr.Mike Smith, the then Resident Representative of IBM Sri Lanka, had discussed the possibility of conducting an Open Squash Championships with the then President of the Gymkhana Club, Srinath Sirimane. Until then the only Squash activity of any ‘Competitive nature’ was confined to the ‘Royal Ceylon Air Force’ playing a Friendly’ against the Members of the Queen’s Club, which had quite a number of expatriates included in their team, perhaps once or twice a year, either at the Queen’s Club or they were hosted by the Air Force Officers in Katunayaka. Air Force also played a couple of such ‘Friendlies’ against the Sri Lanka Navy, during Admiral Basil Gunasekera’s time as its Commander, since he was a keen Squash player, again picked up the game at Dartmouth!

The inaugural Squash Championship was named the ‘IBM/Thomas Cook Open Squash Championships’, which were conducted in early December in 1980 at the CCC courts. Inspired by the tremendous response it received from the Squash fraternity in Sri Lanka, the seeds of the formation of ‘Sri Lanka Squash Federation’ were mooted.

By the first quarter of 1981, the inaugural meeting of the Squash Federation took place with the three Armed Forces, Sri Lanka Air Force, Sri Lanka Army , Sri Lanka Navy along with the Gymkhana Club and the fifth founder member being ‘St.Thomas’ College, Guruthalawa, the only College to have a Squash Court of their own at that time.

The newly formed Sri Lanka Squash Federation [SLSF], after having been duly recognized & registered with the Ministry of Sports, obtained membership of the Asian Squash Federation & a five member team took wings to take part at its 1st Asian Senior Squash Championships in August 1981, held in Karachi, Pakistan. Since then, Sri Lanka has taken part in every Asian Senior or Junior Championships held at many countries in the region.

Formal National Championships started off from December 1981. During the next four years the ‘Nationals’ was the only tournament conducted with events expanded to ‘Men’s & Women’s Open, Boys under 19, Novices as well as Masters over 40. A major departure occurred in August 1985 with the introduction of the Ranveli Open Squash Championships in August & the Oberoi Open later in October, which was culminated with the ‘Nationals’ in December 1985. Since then the Federation has been conducting between 5 to 7 open tournaments a year.

Another noteworthy milestone achieved was the introduction of the ‘Junior Nationals’ in August 1990. The idea of holding a separate Junior National Championships’ for different age groups was felt due to the absence of Junior Players in the game & to ensure that it spreads to a wider section at much younger age groups. First Junior Nationals was sponsored by ‘Union Transport Private Limited’ a Freight Forwarding Company where its Directors were involved with promoting Badminton & Squash. Since then, the Junior Nationals has been the 2nd most prestigious event of the SLSF Calendar drawing much interest amongst the juniors.

The World Squash Federation (WSF), the international governing body of the sport, is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), while Asian Squash Federation (ASF) acts as the governing body of the sport in the Asian region.

Sri Lanka Squash (SLS),a not for profit organization, is the national governing sports body responsible for overall development of the game which includes athletes, coaches, referees and officials in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka currently stands no 3 in South Asia and 5th and 6th for Junior Women’s and Men’s categories respectively and 7th and 13th for Senior Women’s and Men’s categories respectively in Asia. The sport is taken up by about 3000 players in the country including school children, Military personnel, Masters and Veteran Players

Around 11 schools among which 9 from Colombo and 1 from Kandy 1 and from Guruthalawa have their own squash courts while about 20 schools actively take part in the game .

courts while about 20 schools actively take part in the game . All the reputed Clubs, reputed Hotels and Condominium housing complexes with sports facilities in Colombo too have squash courts while squash is very popular in Tri Forces and Police and most of their camps provide squash as a recreation facility for the Military personnel.

On average about 400 participants take the game at competitive level participating at SLS organized National Ranking tournaments in Junior, Open, Masters and Veteran categories.

SQUASH is a gender-neutral sport and can be played by people of all ages. Anybody can play squash. All you need is a racquet and ball, and a squash court. You can get started instantly and hit the ball with the racquet in the direction of the front wall. Squash has a learning curve that rewards as equally as it challenges. Squash is enthralling, exciting, absorbing, rewarding. It burns up to 1500 calories per hour in a competitive and fun environment, with significant health benefits in as little as half an hour. Squash also helps develop street-smartness and thinking abilities

Squash is a unique sport which strengthens the mind and coordination among many things which helps a child develop the ability to focus and be sharp in class. Squash is very popular in many developed countries and most of the Universities (including Ivy League in USA) have recognized Squash as a major sport. Therefore the opportunities are endless for talented youngsters who excel in studies and sports. As of now many young talented Squash players have been awarded Scholarships by the most Prestigious Universities and the list included Harvard University, Yale University, Mount Holyoke College and National University of Singapore.

University, Mount Holyoke College and National University of Singapore. There are world championships happening every year, which have more than 300,000$ as prize money. There are world championships going on at the junior level as well, which also involve huge money. Youngsters are getting international exposure at an early age.